dinsdag 30 december 2008

Welke liefde van god?

"For the Love of God questions something about the morality of art and money. This is something I've often wondered about when I read of the fantastic prices private individuals pay for works by Picasso, Klimt and Warhol. How do these people sleep at night, knowing that the hundred million they just spent could have endowed schools, built hospitals, eradicated diseases and alleviated hunger? Don't they think about the morality of pouring so much wealth into something as dead as a diamond necklace, a painting, a private jet?Once you begin to think in this way, Hirst's title becomes ambiguous, for it is a phrase that can be said in exasperation - as in "For the love of God, what are we all thinking?" For the Love of God is a hand grenade thrown into the decadent, greedy, and profoundly amoral world where art meets money.But it is more. By ensuring that the price he is asking for the skull receives the maximum amount of publicity, Hirst has also made sure that whoever buys it will never be able to enjoy it. Like the Ring of the Nibelung, this glittering, deadly prize will prove at some level a curse to the person who possesses it.I can't remember another art work that so perfectly embodies the cynicism and ambivalence successful artists must feel towards those who promote and collect their work. Part of what interests me so much about this whole project is the fact that Hirst is the main person who will profit by its sale. Confusing, but fascinating."De Telegraaf.